Need advice on changing behavior
Aside from this stuff, he's doing great! He's much better at Come and Stay than he used to be. He's just so...fired up these days. I'm counting the days until his neutering appt in the hopes that it will help calm him down a bit! (11 days...) |
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| Hi Bailey's Mom,
You are on the right track with maintaining pack leadership, have him earn everything, must sit before being invited to dine, must let you go first through doorways etc. Please do not use the knee on chest technique, he could get injured. (you could lose balance and fall too) You can keep him on a leash, have someone approach him. As he starts to energize give only enough leash so he can sit, say no jump-have the approaching walk by him if he is starting to jump. Put your foot on the leash with only enough leash to sit. Then say sit and enforce it. Try this a few times. Then ask him to sit when approached, again you control leash length. Give him just enough leash to sit-if he sits calmly the approaching person gives lavish praise. If not , the person walks by him. It took us quite a while with this , but not rewarding the jumping with removal of attention in time worked like a charm for us!! Make sure you give him the right amount of exercise, a tired pup is a good pup. Good luck ! |
| That's good advice for visitors and outside, thanks. But the problem is he's jumping on me in the house. Not sure why I suddenly generate such enthusiasm! |
| Not always practical, but our trainer had suggested a
waist leash. The leash ties around your waist so you are hands free. It was good for housetraining, and for the jumping issue. Not always practical to have your sheepie tethered to you, but by doing that consistantly in reasonable time increments it helped. He can't do a flying leap when you are in control ! The indoor leash was lighter weight and longer than the six feet so he could move and lie down, but he learned quickly good behavior paid off ! |
| Hi,
You've recieved wonderful suggestions so far. I'm only going to add that usually you'll see a change at aprox 7 months to 12 months - depending on the individual dog. They appear to change again at 2 yrs...more testing.. With our breeds they generally don't settle down until 3, unlike 18 months with other breeds. Even those that train dogs for therapy, to work with the blind, ect...don't do the serious training until the dogs reach 18 months. Previous to that it's more socialization and exposing them to all sorts of things. Merlin is now at 22 months..and I have seen a slight change in him the past 2-3 months. This boy constantly test me!!! I found out later the breeder had given him the name Cartman (from Southpark)  I hadn't seen the show until then....but boy now that I have that name suits him far more than Merlin. Just be patient, consistent and preserve your sanity as it does pass and there is light at the end of the tunnel.
You'll look back fondly one day and notice that all those previous testing behaviors are gone. Good Luck! Marianne and the boys |
Sue, with Panda, Ive also done the rocks in the soda can. As soon as he starts coming at you lean toward him and shake the can..hard..only say off once, but continue to shake the can. It worked for Panda, especially at the front door...BUT...I have stopped being consistant with her and the can with me, sooooo, shes jumping again  when you come over I can show you what I mean.....the dog trainer that I got, was for that purpose and of course to get her to stop chewing on the turtle  ...the turtle thing worked, but the momma needs to be consistant...i think the can is easier than the leash thing...I never could find the leash when i needed it!  |
| Barney went through this with me whenever I came home from work. I would walk out in the yard and he'd be all over me. I found the best results with the 5 minute rule: as I opened the door to go out, he would come in. I'd close the storm door with him inside so he could sit there and watch me, and I would proceed out to clean up his pen where he does his business, and check to make sure he obeyed himself while I was gone. (I made sure to have a couple of treats with me when I went out.) Then after a full 5 minutes, I would come back in. If he settled down, I would ask him to sit and give him a treat. Now he's pretty much over it. But if he looks like he's hyper when I open the door, I repeat the training. Barney just turned 8 months, and seems to be settling in to the routine of my going to work and returning. So maybe you're near the light at the end of the tunnel. |
| what about an older dog? lets say oh about 3 years old? lol
he is getting better with sit, but thats about it |
| Right around 5 months is when Spike became a royal pain in the arse and do you know why? TEETHING! I will go against the grain of advice in this thread and say, teach him not to do certain things but DO NOT THINK you have a serious behavioral issue that you need to worry about - give it 3 months - I have a very strong feeling that after the teething is all done, he's going to be more wonderful than ever. After the teething finishes (or begins to slow down) and all the new teeth are coming in, the biting/nipping/jumping has all improved immensely in my house at least. Give it time and don't worry, it'll be okay. |
| Thanks for all the advice! Looking through all of this I've realized that I have been slacking off on some of the behaviors we used when he was younger, like the 5 minute rule. I will reread my "Dog Listener" and find myself a Coke can to fill with rocks! |
| Hi,
Good luck to you!! Just remember when he gets a little older and goes through his teens...well it's like humans going through their teens. Sigh...For some reason I always think of that saying"What doesn't kill you, only makes you stronger.
Marianne and the boys |
| Hi I'm a trainer. Jumping and Nipping, you are correct he is asserting his Alpha behavior, this is also anxiety related (he doesn't know his place). My suggestion is to practice setting him up and correct the behavior. As follows: Put a training collar (prong/choke/martingale) whatever you are comfortable with and attach a short leash. Get a bottle of half water/half distilled vinegar and keep in handy. Wiggle around, jump around until he jumps up. When he does, firmly grab his collar or the leash and give a quick tug to the side and say OFF. Repeat a few times. If he keeps jumping, take the spray bottle and aim for the mouth/nose and say off. Your biting problem should diminish quite a bit in just a couple of days. Make sure no one in your family lets him jump up. When he doesn't jump up, ask him to sit/lie down and say GOOD BOY. Praise him for what he does right. Some people think it's mean to set the dog up, but from my point of view, if he knocks someone down and hurts someone you have much bigger problems.
Another thing you can do is if he likes to tackle you when you come in the door, keep a heavy book by the doors and when you come in, drop the book loudly, don't look or say anything to him. He'll look a little sheepish (sorry bad pun) or startled, which is expected. He's learning to respect you when you walk in. When he's calm and settled, call him over, ask him to sit and say GOOD BOY! |
| Oh, I went thru that with Gucci as well! What worked really well was if I did an about face and ignored him! He hated that! He knew that I wouldn't even acknowledge him until he sat that little wiggly bum on the ground! He is deaf, so yelling NO, has no effect on him, but this REALLY worked! I wouldn't even touch him to pull him down, just take a step back until the front paws are back on the ground and turn around!
Hope this works with Bailey! Colleen and "Sitting nice" Sir Gucci |
| I agree completely with Gucci's mom. Max was the biggest pain with jumping. We completely ignore him when we walk in. Even if he jumps, we keep walking through the house like he's not there. Eventually, he learned that the only way he was going to get pet was by sitting.
Good Luck! |
| I have the same problem with Beaumont. He wants to jump up on everyone. I'm going to work on some of the suggestions posted and I'll update you on how he did.
You're not alone  |
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